On view
Uk’ib (drinking cup) depicting Wahy figures,
ca. 755
Patron: Yajawte’ K’ihnich
More Context
Didactics
This vessel presents a bizarre cast of supernatural coessences (way in Maya) of kings from a number of major polities in northwest Guatemala. Throughout Mesoamerica, it was believed that each person had a companion spirit, or alter ego, which often took the form of an animal. The way presented here, however, are fantastic amalgamations of humans and animals, identified in the adjacent inscriptions. Some have descriptive names, such as "scaffold ocelot" (ch'aktel hixnal), while others have more poetic names--the bird with a serpent encircling its neck, for example, is named "death on the path" (tan bihil kimi). The inscription along the rim presents both explanatory information about the vessel and historical documentation. Several vessels are known to have been produced by the same artist, although the location of his workshop remains unknown. This vase was produced for the king of Motul de San José.
Special Exhibition
This vessel presents a fantastic cast of characters, each representing a malady or the supernatural entity thought to be responsible for such conditions. The hieroglyphic captions provide the names of these entities as well as their origins or genealogy. Such biographical details about malevolent forces were used in colonial-era Maya curing incantations, revealing that esoteric knowledge about illness-causing forces was considered both a form of protection against them and of curing. The text along the rim records that the drinking-cup’s royal owner conducted a rite in a cave, presumably where the protective knowledge depicted below was revealed to him.
More About This Object
Information
ca. 755
North America, Guatemala, Petén, Maya area, Ik'a (Motul de San José or vicinity)
Cylinder Vase with Wahy Figures
- Francis Robiscek, The Maya Book of the Dead: The Ceramic Codex (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Art Museum, 1981)., fig. 22a, p. 121 (illus.)
- Stephen D. Houston and David Stuart, The Way Glyph: Evidence for Co-essences among the Classic Maya (Washington, D.C.: Center for Maya Research, 1989).
- Justin Kerr, The Maya Vase Book: A Corpus of Rollout Photographs of Maya Vases, Volume 1 (New York: Kerr Associates, 1989)., p. 49 (illus. rollout)
- Eva Eggebrecht, Arne Eggebrecht, and Nikolai Grube, eds., Die Welt der Maya: Archäologische Schätze aus drei Jahrtausenden (Cologne: Museumsdienst Köln and Rautenstrach-Joes-Museum für Völkerkunde der Stadt Köln, 1992), fig. 126 (illus. rollout)
- Nikolai Grube and Werner Nahm, "A Census of Xibalba: A Complete Inventory of way Characters on Maya Ceramics," in The Maya Vase Book, Vol. 4, eds. Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr (New York: Kerr Associates, 1994): 686-715., pp. 686–715
- Joanne M. Spero and Justin Kerr, "Glyphic Names of Animals on Codex-Style Vases," in Seventh Palenque Round Table, 1989, Volume IX, ed. Merle Greene Robertson (San Francisco: Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, 1994): 145-155., fig. 24 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1993", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 53, no. 1 (1994): p. 46-95., p. 68
- Inga Calvin, "Where the Wayob Live: A Further Example of Classic Maya Supernaturals" in the Maya Vase Book, Vol. 5, eds. Barabara Kerr and Justin Kerr (Seattle: Akshara Books, 1997): 868-883. , pp. 868–883
- Peter Schmidt, Mercedes de la Garza, and Enrique Nalda, eds., Maya (New York: Rizolli, 1998)., p. 270 (illus.); pp. 274–275 (illus. rollout)
- Dorie Reents-Budet, "The Art of Classic Vase Painting," in Maya: Gottkönige in Regenwald, ed. Nikolai Grube (Köln: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, 2000): 247-259., figs. 395–397 (illus.)
- Anna Blume, "Royal Visions: Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya," Art in America 92, no. 11 (Dec., 2004): p. 102-107, 151, p. 106 (illus.)
- Mary E. Miller and Simon Martin, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museum of San Fransisco, 2004)., pl. 13, p. 42 (illus., image reversed)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 58-59 (illus.)
- Ana García Barrios, "Chaahk, el Dios de la Lluvia, en el Periodo Clásico Maya: Aspectos Religiosos y Políticos" (PhD diss. unpublished, Universidad Compultense de Madrid, 2008)., fig. 1.79b (illus.)
- Bryan R. Just, Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik' Kingdom (Princeton, Princeton University Art Museum, 2012)., p. 33 (illus.); figs. 52–61b, pp. 126–131; figs. 64–70, p. 133–136; figs. 68–71, p. 136; fig. 71c, p. 137; fig. 72, p. 138; fig. 80, p. 143, figs. 82–83, p. 145–146; fig. 85 bottom, p. 147; figs. 171–174, pp. 224–225; fig. 177, p. 228; fig. 181, p. 230
- Sarah Nunberg, "New Insights from Conservation and Materials Analysis of Maya Vases at Princeton," in Dancing into Dreams, Maya Vase Painting of the Ik' Kingdom, ed. Bryan R. Just (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 2012): 220-235., figs. 171–174, 177 and 181 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 58
- Alexandre Tokovinine and Dmitri Beliaev, “People of the Road: Traders and Travelers in Ancient Maya Words and Images,” in Merchants, Markets, and Exchange in the Pre-Columbian World, Kenneth G. Hirth and Joanne Pillsbury, eds., (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2013), pp. 169–200 , fig 7.17 (illus.; detail, line drawing)
- Alejandra Martínez de Velasco Cotrina and María Elena Vega Villalobos, eds. The Maya: Voices in Stone, 2nd ed. (Mexico City; Madrid: Turner/Ámbar Diseño, A ́mbar Disen~o: Universidad Nacional Auto ́noma de Me ́xico: Turner, 2015)., fig. 155 (illus.)
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Matthew Looper, The Beast Between: Deer in Maya Art and Culture (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019)
, Fig. 8.4a (illus.)
